We live in an era of traumatic events. Although the media call it a crisis, their manifestation in life and the society is that of a trauma. Regardless of how we call it – personal, financial, social, emotional, moral or psychological – the result is always the same: traumatic.That is why this year’s International Small Scenes Festival programme – itself traumatized by financial cuts – will theatrically explore this era. From the most hidden, most intimate traumas, to the big social trauma of the society and its values, the Festival will gather performances which cut deep into the flesh of a society in transition, as well as into individual intimacies in difficult times.

Our intention is not to seek for

causes or offer solutions and answers, but to explore theatrical manifestation of traumatic periods with its contents and aesthetics. Our interest lies in the reaction of the theatre to social, moral and intimate crises which have gotten under our skin. We want to know the manifestation of trauma under the footlights, in an art form said to be larger than life, but never distant from it. In this year’s programme there is no escapism, we do not run away from the reality or pretend that theatre can shelter us from reality, be a place where we could for a moment elope all worries and hide into the safety of art. The year 2010 is a year when transition revealed its true face, when the bills of loans and consumer euphoria came

due, a year that will once be remembered as a turning point. What we don’t know now is where our lives, society, or ourselves will turn, shall we fall apart or (finally) take a better course. This year’s festival speaks about the traumatic era and its consequences.

We were particularly interested to learn how young directors who are in no way responsible for social trauma, and who simply inherited it see its consequences. With the exception of Egon Savin and Paolo Magelli as representatives of middle generation, all other directors present on this year’s festival represent younger generation whose voice speaks most loudly about social and intimate fractures.

Unlike those who can only express their traumas on the street, during this year’s festival the art will protest on the scenes in Rijeka!

Jasen Boko